Compliance classification for bathing waters assessed as having 'poor' quality - under the Revised Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC)
Bathing waters are to be classified as 'poor' if, in the set of bathing water quality data for the assessment period, the percentile values for microbiological enumerations are worse than the 'sufficient' values.
Compliance classification limits used are:
Coastal and Transitional Bathing Waters
"Excellent" EC: ≤250; IE: ≤100 (95-percentile)
"Good" EC: ≤500; IE: ≤100 (95-percentile)
"Sufficient" EC: ≤500; IE: ≤185 (90-percentile)
Inland Bathing Waters
"Excellent" EC: ≤ 500; IE: ≤200 (95-percentile)
"Good" EC: ≤1000; IE: ≤400 (95-percentile)
"Sufficient" EC: ≤ 900; IE: ≤330 (90-percentile)
EC = Escherichia coli, IE = Intestinal enterococci.
All numeric limits are cfu/100ml